Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a known technique for obtaining 2-dimensional (2D) and 3-dimensional (3D) images of a patient based upon nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) principles. MRI is widely used in medicine for the examination and diagnosis of internal medical conditions in a patient. Detailed descriptions of MRI systems are widely available in the literature. Briefly, an MRI system generally includes an electromagnet for producing an intense magnetic field for covering at least a portion of a patient's anatomy. Typically an MRI system also includes a radio frequency field generator, a receiving system coupled to a coil surrounding a portion of the patient's anatomy under study, and a magnetic gradient system to localize in space a particular portion of the patient's anatomy under study. Generally, an MRI system or scanner also includes a computer-based image processing system for receiving signals from the coil and for processing the signals into interpretable data, such as visual images for viewing by a physician or other radiology analyst. Generally, the system includes MR scanner control apparatus for controlling operation and operating and measurement parameters of the system.
Various arrangements including control arrangements are known in the MRI art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,194, entitled CONTROL OF MRI SYSTEM and assigned to Fonar Corporation, discloses an arrangement wherein a generic MR Host for controlling multiple types of MPCUs such as a WordProgram (the Host) can communicate with multiple types of printers. Thus, the scanner control in this patent controls a plurality of devices.
In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,198,285 entitled IN-ROOM MRI DISPLAY TERMINAL AND REMOTE CONTROL SYSTEM and assigned to Hitachi Medical Corporation, discloses an arrangement for controlling a piece of equipment in an MR room by way of an infrared receiver. In this arrangement, the control path is contained within a room.
It is herein recognized that the foregoing documents, do not contemplated controlling a scanner by multiple types of input applications. Furthermore, at least in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 6,198,285, operation is restricted to within a room. No means are disclosed for controlling scanner parameters remotely.
A prior development was to allow the prototype application Interactive Front End to control a real time measurement on the scanner remotely. See the publication by C. H. Lorenz, K. J. Kirchberg, S. Zuehlsdorff, P. Speier, M. Caylus, W. Borys, T. Moeller, and M. A. Guttman entitled “Interactive Frontend (IFE): A platform for Graphical MR Scanner Control and Scan Automation”; Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 13 (2005); 2170, whereof the disclosure is hereby incorporated herein by reference. Authors Kirchberg, Speier, and Lorenz are also named inventors in the present application for patent.
The MriProtAccess[d].dll uses the OLE Automation, which was used by the Syngo architecture and is disclosed in German patent document No. DE 1962584 to which reference is made for further information. OLE stands for Object Linking and Embedding; this is a Microsoft Corporation software technology that generally allows Windows programs to exchange information and work together. The definition of OLE already includes remote control and this existed in the initial NUMARIS/4 software. NUMARIS is a software package application applicable to MR from Siemens AG, also under the name SYNGO MR.